MAN highlighted that the decision lacks sufficient data, stakeholder consultation, and could result in economic disruption, job losses, and further hardship, particularly for low-income traders and microbusinesses.

In a recent statement signed by Segun Ajayi-Kadir, the director general, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria held that the decision does not recognise the current socio-economic situation and does not provide a beneficial solution, stating that the Ministry of Environment has yet to publish any study to back the reasons for the decision.

“The decision is predicated on the unsubstantiated claim that plastics, and especially some single-use plastics (SUPs) are associated with adverse health and environmental impact and therefore need to be banned. The Ministry is yet to publish any study to substantiate this claim,” the statement reads.

The association highlighted that the adverse environmental and social impacts are a result of failure in plastic waste management, and not plastic products themselves.

Emphasizing that the state government needs to support improved plastic recycling with infrastructure, leasing of lands as dumpsites for sorting at scale to enable adequate recycling.

Citing a recent study by the association, hundred percent of the manufacturers consulted expressed concern over the ban, as it will lead to job loss if implemented.

Also, 93 percent of dealers lack clarity on the policy due to inadequate information. While highlighting loss of revenue and compromise to product integrity as some of the implications of the ban.

MAN advised that a systems-oriented approach should be adopted, which will include inclusive stakeholder engagement, evidence-based policymaking, and support for local alternatives, which balance environmental goals with Nigeria’s socio-economic realities.

*Motunrayo Koyejo is a software engineer specialising in fintech solutions for emerging markets. With a passion for leveraging technology to drive financial inclusion, she contributes insights to Africa’s digital transformation. She currently works as a senior software engineer at Cowrywise

Instead, she had to convert naira to dollars, find a platform that supports Kenyan shillings, and pay a fee that could buy her enough fabric for five dresses. The payment took three days. Her supplier waited, her production halted, and a client order slipped through the cracks.

Multiply Tola’s experience by millions of entrepreneurs across 54 countries, and you begin to understand why intra-African trade remains stubbornly low despite decades of integration rhetoric. The cost is measured in lost opportunities, failed businesses, and an economic integration that exists more in PowerPoint presentations than in practice.

Despite the fintech buzz sweeping across Africa, the simple act of moving money across borders remains slow, expensive, and unreliable. And while flashy apps promise to “revolutionise finance,” the root problem remains untouched: Africa’s financial systems are fragmented, and that fragmentation is costing the continent $5 billion annually in unnecessary payment costs.

The Cross-Border Payment Landscape: Broken by Design

Africa trades with itself far less than any other region in the world. Intra-African trade accounts for just 15% of total exports, compared to 60% in Europe and 38% in North America. Meanwhile, China-Africa trade has hit $295 billion annually, exceeding total intra-African trade of $175 billion.

One reason for this disparity? Moving money between African countries is painfully inefficient. There are over 40 currencies on the continent, most of which aren’t freely convertible.

Payments often route through intermediary banks in the U.S. or Europe before returning to the continent.

That journey is expensive as shown in Figure 1 which details the average remittance cost per payment corridor for each continent.

This acts as a tax on growth, which is why about  75% of African trade happens through informal channels, specifically to avoid these costs, creating a massive underground economy. According to UNCTAD’s 2023 Economic Development in Africa Report, inadequate payment systems are a key factor in the continent’s trade underperformance.

The Mobile Money Paradox

Africa leads the world in mobile money innovation. Kenya has 77 million mobile money accounts for a population of 56 million.

According to the newly released State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money (SOTIR) 2025 by GSMA, a global organisation that unifies the mobile ecosystem, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) recorded 1.1 billion of the 2 billion mobile money accounts registered globally as of 2024, yet these systems remain isolated.

While you can send money instantly within countries, cross-border transactions remain costly and cumbersome.

This is the mobile money paradox: a continent that pioneered financial inclusion through mobile wallets still struggles with regional financial integration.

Domestic transactions are fast, cheap, and widespread. But the moment money needs to cross a border, the system breaks down due to fragmentation thereby leading to an expensive and inefficient transaction.

We need to connect the pipes so that Africa’s mobile money revolution can grow from a local success into a truly continental one.

Fintechs Are Innovating, But Reach Is Limited

Startups like Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, Nala, and Eversend offer wallet-based cross-border payments. However, many operate in closed systems. Funds often can’t be withdrawn into local bank accounts, and FX rates remain inconsistent.Some fintechs also hesitate to expand due to regulatory uncertainty, capital controls, and compliance hurdles.

Underground alternatives on the other hand are flourishing. Nigeria alone accounts for about 40% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s stablecoin inflows with latforms such as Juicyway processing over $1.3 billion in stealth cross-border transactions, driven purely by demand.

The Real Villain: Fragmentation

Each country has its own licensing, Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Foreign Exchange (FX)  rules. Opening accounts in Ghana, Kenya, or South Africa often requires country-specific documentation, local guarantors, and additional clearance. Nigeria’s multiple exchange rates and currency restrictions worsen the chaos.

Compare this to Europe’s SEPA. These systems demonstrate what happens when you build infrastructure first and compete second.

PAPSS and AfCFTA: Promise Without Speed

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is Africa’s boldest attempt yet at breaking the cross-border payments bottleneck. Developed by Afreximbank in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and launched in 2022, PAPSS allows businesses and individuals in participating African countries to pay each other directly in their local currencies; no need to route payments through the U.S. dollar or euro.

Here’s how it works: when a buyer in Ghana initiates a payment to a supplier in Nigeria, PAPSS instantly converts Ghanaian cedis to Nigerian naira using real-time exchange rates negotiated between central banks.

The transaction clears locally, reducing reliance on foreign correspondent banks and cutting transaction costs and time.

In fact, over 115 commercial banks and several central banks have already joined the network. In one notable case, a Ghanaian company successfully paid a Nigerian partner in local currency in under five minutes.

So, why isn’t PAPSS everywhere yet?

Because solving a technical problem is not the same as solving a systemic one.

• Regulatory uncertainty: Each country operates under its own regulatory framework. Some central banks are still working through how PAPSS fits into their compliance, capital control, and anti-money laundering regimes. Without clear rules or standardised legal frameworks, many banks are adopting a “wait and see” approach.
• Liquidity concerns: For PAPSS to work smoothly, central banks need to maintain enough local currency reserves to settle transactions in real time. But volatile exchange rates, fluctuating reserves, and inflation risks make this a delicate balancing act, especially in countries already struggling with monetary stability.
• Legacy systems: Many African banks still operate on outdated core banking systems that don’t integrate easily with new platforms like PAPSS. The technical upgrades required to connect fully are costly and time-consuming.
• Awareness gap: A significant number of African businesses—especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—have never heard of PAPSS. The product has had limited promotion outside of pilot countries, and adoption strategies have been largely top-down, missing grassroots financial ecosystems that power most trade.
• Incentive mismatch: Some banks benefit from the status quo. They earn fees from foreign currency conversions and maintain profitable correspondent banking relationships abroad. PAPSS threatens those margins, so there’s little internal motivation to push adoption.

PAPSS was designed to be the financial infrastructure supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is Africa’s most ambitious economic integration project to date. AfCFTA aims to remove tariffs on 90% of goods, ease the movement of people and services, and boost intra-African trade by as much as $50–70 billion by 2040.

Trade liberalisation without payment liberalisation is like building roads with no vehicles. Businesses might have legal permission to trade, but without affordable and fast cross-border payment systems, the potential gains remain locked up.

AfCFTA and PAPSS are two sides of the same coin; one sets the policy, the other enables execution. But for PAPSS to scale, political will must match technical readiness.

That means central banks must fast-track integration, governments must legislate for interoperability and transparency, and banks must be incentivised—or compelled—to onboard. Most importantly, the private sector needs to be educated and empowered to adopt the platform at scale.

The Missing Piece: Shared Infrastructure and Political Will

Every time a payment between African countries gets routed through London, New York, or Frankfurt, it’s a loss of control. Africa pays in fees, speed, and sovereignty. If intra-African trade is to become a reality, not just a policy paper, then payments infrastructure must evolve from fragmented and foreign-dependent to interoperable and African-owned.

Right now, we don’t just have a payment gap. We have a coordination gap. Building the technical rails is only half the job.

The harder challenge is aligning governments, regulators, and private sector players around shared rules, common standards, and mutual trust. Without that alignment, even the best technology will gather dust.

Here’s what needs to happen:

1. Regulatory Harmonisation

Each African country has its own approach to KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and payment licensing. This makes cross-border compliance a nightmare for banks and fintechs. We need a pan-African regulatory framework that defines:

• Standardised onboarding and verification protocols
• Shared risk assessment models
• Data-sharing agreements between regulators

A unified set of rules would reduce friction and speed up onboarding, especially for smaller players that can’t afford complex compliance operations.

2. FX Reform and Local Liquidity Pools

A significant reason many payments leave the continent is that they need to be converted into a “hard” currency first, typically USD or EUR. Central banks should consider:

• Creating regional FX liquidity pools backed by Afreximbank
• Publishing real-time exchange rates
• Enabling local settlement between trusted institutions, even in thinly traded currencies

This will reduce volatility and make local currency settlements more appealing.

3. Public-Private Collaboration

Governments can’t build this alone. They need fintechs, telecoms, and banks to join forces in designing and rolling out solutions that actually meet the needs of African traders. That means:

• Incentivising private sector R&D through grants and tax relief
• Opening regulatory sandboxes for experimentation
• Fast-tracking licenses for fintechs solving cross-border problems

Innovation tends to happen at the edge, not the centre. Smart partnerships can bridge the gap.

4. PAPSS Expansion Through Awareness and Mandates

It’s not enough for PAPSS to exist; it needs to become the default. That requires a coordinated campaign across all levels:

• Central banks mandating its use for eligible cross-border public sector payments
• Governments adopting it for procurement and aid disbursements
• Chambers of commerce and trade associations promoting it to their members
• Training banks, MSMEs, and payment operators on how and why to use it

PAPSS adoption must be pushed, not just permitted.

5. Real-Time Data Interoperability

African countries need data interoperability. That includes APIs that allow different banks and fintechs to “talk” to each other securely in real time. Without this, cross-border transactions will always feel clunky and delayed.

Open banking frameworks and shared infrastructure layers (like digital identity, credit registries, and fraud detection systems) can close the loop.

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher

Tola and millions like her deserve better. If payment barriers fall, Africa’s income could rise by $450 billion by 2035, according to the World Bank.

We have PAPSS, mobile money, and fintech platforms. What we need is the political will to make them work together. Let’s move beyond pilots. Let’s move money. The infrastructure exists. The demand is massive. The only question is whether we will use it before the world leaves us behind.

*Motunrayo Koyejo is a software engineer specialising in fintech solutions for emerging markets. With a passion for leveraging technology to drive financial inclusion, she contributes insights to Africa’s digital transformation. She currently works as a senior software engineer at Cowrywise

With the world’s youngest population and a digital economy expected to hit $180 billion by 2025, the continent is set for a financial revolution.

Open banking APIs are at the center of this change, allowing secure data sharing between banks and third-party providers.

Nigeria is leading the way, with other countries catching up, promising more accessible, efficient, and innovative financial services across Africa.

Understanding Open Banking APIs

Open banking is a modern financial services model that allows third-party providers like fintechs, startups, and other innovators to access consumer banking data, transaction histories, and financial services from banks and non-bank institutions via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

These APIs serve as secure bridges, facilitating communication between disparate financial systems and unlocking a wealth of opportunities for innovation.

Open banking represents a seismic shift in Africa, where financial ecosystems are diverse, ranging from traditional banks to mobile money platforms and informal savings groups.

Unlike the historically closed banking models that dominate many regions, open banking promotes secure data sharing (with customer consent), addressing long-standing challenges like financial exclusion, fragmented infrastructure, and limited interoperability.

From Nigeria’s bustling fintech hubs to Kenya’s mobile money dominance, this framework is paving the way for a more connected and inclusive digital economy..

The Current State of Open Banking in Africa

Africa’s journey toward open banking is uneven but promising, with 11 countries having initiated frameworks or pilots. The continent’s digital payments market is expected to hit $40 billion by year-end, and open banking APIs are accelerating this growth.

Yet, adoption remains low, hovering at 3-5% of banking customers continent-wide due to infrastructure gaps, regulatory disparities, and limited awareness. Below is a snapshot of the state of play in key markets:

Nigeria (West Africa)

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is a trailblazer in open banking. In 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced its Regulatory Framework for Open Banking, one of the continent’s first.

By 2024, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) will have advanced technical standards, with 18 banks and 30 fintechs rolling out API capabilities.

Adoption stands at 6% of banking customers, up from 5% in 2024, but challenges like awareness and infrastructure persist. Nigeria’s progress positions it as a model for others.

Kenya (East Africa)

Kenya lacks formal open banking regulation, but its mobile money ecosystem, led by Safaricom’s M-Pesa, has driven organic API adoption.

M-Pesa’s Daraja API, launched in 2012, processes over $300 billion annually, with ~10% of its 51 million users engaging with third-party services like lending apps.

The absence of a regulatory framework, however, limits broader banking integration.

South Africa (Southern Africa)

South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is finalizing an open finance position paper for mid-2025. Major banks like Standard Bank have piloted APIs since 2023, with adoption at ~7% of banking customers.

The country’s mature banking sector contrasts with high compliance costs and legacy system challenges.

Egypt (North Africa)

Egypt’s Central Bank introduced open banking guidelines in 2023, focusing on fintech integration. Fawry, a payment giant, leads with APIs serving 39 million monthly users.

Penetration is at ~4%, concentrated in urban areas, with rural access and trust as key hurdles.

Ghana (West Africa)

The Bank of Ghana is developing an open banking sandbox, while MTN Mobile Money drives API use. Adoption is at ~6% of mobile money users, bolstered by platforms like Zeepay, though regulatory clarity lags.

The Unique Opportunity for Africa

Open banking’s potential in Africa is profound, amplified by the continent’s unique challenges and opportunities:

1. Financial Inclusion Challenges

According to the World Bank, approximately 350 million adults in Sub-Saharan Africa remain unbanked, including 75 million in Nigeria alone.

Mobile money, used by 600 million Africans, offers a foundation, but open banking APIs can take this further by:

• Enabling accessible financial products for underserved segments.
• Reducing costs through competition and efficiency.
• Supporting alternative credit scoring using mobile and transaction data.
• Integrating informal financial systems (e.g., Kenya’s chamas) into formal channels.

2. Fragmented Financial Infrastructure

Africa’s 54 countries host a patchwork of financial systems, Egypt’s card-based networks, Nigeria’s bank-fintech hybrids, and East Africa’s mobile money dominance. Open banking APIs can unify these silos by:

• Creating seamless customer experiences across providers.
• Lowering integration costs with standardized interfaces.
• Enhancing interoperability between banks, mobile money, and fintechs.
• Strengthening system resilience, as seen in pilots by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

Early Market Impact and Success Stories

Open banking APIs are already driving tangible change across Africa’s financial landscape, even in their nascent stages.

From fintechs enhancing credit access to mobile money platforms powering commerce, early adopters leverage APIs to innovate, improve financial inclusion, and boost efficiency.

Below are standout examples from key markets, illustrating the diversity and potential of open banking across the continent.

Nigeria: Carbon and Okra

In Nigeria, open banking is fueling a fintech revolution. Carbon has harnessed banking APIs to refine its lending platform, disbursing over ₦57 billion (~$40 million) to 2.5 million customers by 2024.

PalmPay, Carbon Join Forces with Verve to Give Over 30 million Customers Access to Verve cards

By securely accessing customer banking data (with consent), Carbon has built sophisticated credit-scoring models that reduced loan default rates by 38% compared to traditional methods.

The platform reports a 15% uptick in loan disbursements year-over-year, reflecting growing trust in API-driven services.

Meanwhile, Okra has emerged as a “super-connector,” linking over 200 businesses to bank accounts via its API platform and processing over 350 million API calls.

Okra powers use cases from lending to personal finance management, cementing Nigeria’s role as a fintech pacesetter.

Kenya: Safaricom’s M-Pesa

Kenya’s mobile money giant, Safaricom, exemplifies organic open banking through its M-Pesa Daraja API. Launched in 2012, this API enables developers to integrate payment and lending solutions, serving M-Pesa’s 51 million users across East Africa.

In 2024 alone, it facilitated $1.2 billion in microloans via third-party apps, with transaction volumes exceeding $300 billion annually.

By March 2025, ~10% of M-Pesa users (5.1 million) actively engage with API-enabled services such as KCB M-Pesa’s savings accounts or Branch’s instant loans, demonstrating how open APIs extend financial access beyond payments into credit and investment.

This ecosystem has also spurred over 1,000 local developers to build apps, fostering a vibrant innovation hub.

South Africa: Yoco and Standard Bank

South Africa’s mature banking sector is seeing open banking reshape SME finance. Yoco, a payment platform, leverages APIs to enable 150,000 small businesses to accept digital payments, processing $500 million annually.

Yoco’s API integrations with banks like FNB have cut transaction costs by 12% for merchants, boosting digital adoption in retail and hospitality.

Simultaneously, Standard Bank, a pioneer in open banking pilots since 2023, has rolled out APIs for account aggregation and payment initiation.

Serving 2 million customers with these services, Standard Bank reports a 20% increase in digital transaction volumes, showcasing how legacy banks can compete in an API-driven world.

Egypt: Fawry

Fawry dominates Egypt’s payment landscape in North Africa with its open APIs, connecting 4 million daily users to bill payments, merchant services, and mobile top-ups.

Fawry Partners Infobip to Enhance Electronic Payment Services

Fawry’s API ecosystem supports over 1,500 businesses, processing $2 billion in transactions annually and reducing cash reliance in urban centers like Cairo and Alexandria.

A standout use case is its integration with e-commerce platforms, enabling seamless checkouts that have grown online sales by 25% for partnered merchants. Fawry’s success highlights how open banking can bridge traditional and digital finance in a region with low rural connectivity.

Ghana: Zeepay and MTN Mobile Money

Ghana’s mobile money sector is a hotbed for open banking innovation. Zeepay, a remittance platform, uses APIs to streamline cross-border payments, processing $300 million in transfers in 2024. Its APIs cut remittance costs by 20%, benefiting Ghana’s diaspora community, which sent $4.5 billion home in 2024.

Ghana’s Zeepay Gets Additional $10 Million Debt Funding From Verdant Capital

Meanwhile, MTN Mobile Money’s APIs power bulk disbursements and merchant payments, serving 23 million users.

By the end of 2024, MTN reports 1.5 million API-driven transactions monthly, including payroll for SMEs, illustrating how open banking enhances operational efficiency.

Rwanda: Irembo

Rwanda’s Irembo platform showcases open banking’s public sector potential. Launched as a government e-services portal, Irembo integrates banking APIs to link citizen accounts with taxes, licenses, and utilities payments. It currently serves 3 million users and processes $150 million in transactions annually.

A key success is its partnership with the Bank of Kigali, which enables real-time tax reconciliation, cutting processing times for small businesses by 60%.

Irembo’s model demonstrates how open banking can simultaneously modernize governance and financial inclusion.

Morocco: Attijariwafa Bank

In North Africa, Attijariwafa Bank leverages APIs to bolster trade finance for SMEs. its open banking platform supports $100 million in export financing annually, up 30% from 2024.

APIs integrate transaction data with supply chain insights, enabling faster loan approvals, often within 24 hours, compared to weeks under traditional systems.

This has empowered 5,000 Moroccan exporters, particularly in agriculture and textiles, to compete globally, showing how open banking can drive economic diversification.

Uganda: Beyonic 

In East Africa, Uganda’s Beyonic uses APIs to streamline bulk payments for businesses and NGOs. Beyonic processes $80 million annually across 500 organizations, including disbursements to rural farmers and aid recipients.

Its API integrations with MTN Uganda and Airtel Money cut transaction fees by 15% and delivery times by 50%, enhancing financial access in a country where 40% of adults remain unbanked.

Impact Snapshot

Collectively, these early successes underscore open banking’s versatility, spanning lending (Nigeria, Kenya), SME finance (South Africa, Morocco), remittances (Ghana), public services (Rwanda), payments (Egypt), and disbursements (Uganda).

API-driven services have reached over 30 million Africans, with transaction values exceeding $305 billion annually across these examples alone.

While adoption varies, highest in Kenya (10%) and lowest in Egypt (4%), the momentum signals a broader shift toward an API-first financial ecosystem.

Challenges and Barriers to Fully Implementing Open Banking in Africa

While open banking holds immense promise for transforming Africa’s financial landscape, its implementation faces formidable obstacles.

These challenges span technological, regulatory, social, and economic dimensions, reflecting the continent’s diverse and complex environment. Addressing them is critical to unlocking the full potential of open banking and ensuring it delivers inclusive, efficient financial services.

Below are some of the key barriers:

1. Data Privacy and Security Concerns

The pervasive lack of trust in data-sharing systems is a fundamental barrier to open banking adoption. Many Africans hesitate to share financial data with third parties, a concern amplified by high-profile security breaches.

In Nigeria, sensitive government-held information was sold for as low as 100 naira on some unauthorized websites in 2024, while South Africa saw a 2024 cyberattack compromise 1.2 million accounts.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, cybercrime costs businesses $4.5 billion annually (Interpol, 2023), with financial institutions bearing a significant share.

2. Technical Infrastructure Challenges

Africa’s digital infrastructure remains a critical bottleneck. Internet penetration across the continent stands at 43% as of 2024, up from 36% in 2023 but well below the global average of 67%.

Rural areas, home to 60% of Africa’s 1.4 billion people, suffer the most from mobile network coverage, which is often limited to 3G. Power outages further complicate connectivity; Nigeria, for example, averages 206 hours of blackouts monthly.

For banks and fintechs, maintaining seamless API-driven systems under these conditions is daunting. Legacy banking systems compound the issue; in 2024, five central Nigerian banks (Access, Zenith, UBA, GTBank, and Wema) spent ₦178.77 billion ($105 million) on IT upgrades, a 203% increase from 2023, yet many still rely on outdated infrastructure ill-suited for open banking. Scaling APIs across such uneven terrain requires a massive investment.

3. Regulatory Challenges and Uncertainty

Africa’s open banking landscape is fragmented, making cross-border adoption difficult. While Nigeria set a strong precedent with its 2021 framework, only 11 out of 54 African countries have similar regulations or a pilot program.

Despite M-Pesa’s success, Kenya lacks formal open banking rules, while South Africa plans to introduce its open finance guidelines by mid-2025. Ghana’s regulatory sandbox, expected in late 2025, highlights the slow pace of adoption elsewhere.

This lack of uniformity creates uncertainty; fintechs and banks hesitate to invest without clear regulations. Scaling across Africa is also tough due to differing KYC requirements and data standards in the 54 markets under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Though efforts like the Open Finance African Group’s regional API standards aim to address these gaps, progress remains slow due to limited funding and coordination.

4. Low Digital and Financial Literacy

Limited digital and financial literacy undermines open banking’s reach. In Sub-Saharan Africa, financial literacy averages 32%, far below the 52% in high-income countries.

A 2024 World Bank survey found that 45% of unbanked adults in the region cite a lack of understanding as a barrier to account ownership, with rural women disproportionately affected.

In Egypt, only 27% of adults are financially literate, while in South Africa the figure is 42%. Educating 1.4 billion people across diverse languages and cultures is a monumental task, slowing adoption.

5. Financial Exclusion and Economic Barriers

Open banking relies on financial access, but 350 million adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are still unbanked, including 75 million in Nigeria.

While mobile money is growing—49% of adults now have an account—traditional banking lags at just 29% (Global Findex, 2024).

Poverty makes this worse. Over 431 million Africans live on less than $1.90 a day, making banking fees unaffordable.

Africa’s largely informal economy adds another challenge. Many small businesses and individuals lack formal records, making integrating them into API-driven financial services difficult.

My Perspective on Open Banking in Africa: The Next Five Years 

If current trends continue, open banking could drive significant changes in Africa’s financial landscape over the next five years, particularly in financial inclusion, cost reduction, economic growth, credit expansion, and API adoption.

1. Expanding Financial Inclusion: Africa remains home to the largest unbanked population globally, with over 350 million adults lacking access to formal financial services. Open banking could play a transformative role in reaching these individuals, particularly in mobile-first economies like Kenya, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. By enabling secure, API-driven financial products, more people can access banking, lending, and insurance services without visiting traditional banks.
2.  Lowering Costs for Financial Services: API standardization can significantly reduce operational costs for banks and fintech companies. Analysts estimate that this could lead to a 25–40% reduction in service costs, making financial products more affordable for consumers across Africa, where high banking fees often deter participation in formal financial systems.
3. Boosting Economic Growth: As financial institutions and fintechs leverage open banking frameworks, digital transactions are expected to surge. In Nigeria, digital payments are projected to grow by 15% annually, while in South Africa, API adoption is expected to drive a $3 billion increase in fintech investments by 2027. These advancements will enhance economic growth by facilitating seamless transactions and encouraging new financial innovations.
4. Expanding Access to Credit: Lenders can make more informed credit decisions with better access to consumer and business financial data. Across Africa, where small and medium enterprises (SMEs) struggle to secure loans due to a lack of credit history, open banking could increase lending opportunities by 30–50% over the next five years.
5. Growth of the API Ecosystem: The adoption of open banking APIs is expected to skyrocket, particularly in countries with strong fintech ecosystems like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. The number of API calls processed through open banking infrastructure is projected to grow from 1.2 billion in 2024 to over 15 billion by 2029.

The Future of Open Banking in Africa

Open banking APIs have the potential to reshape Africa’s financial landscape by enhancing financial access, fostering innovation, and increasing efficiency.

• For consumers: More personalized, affordable, and accessible financial services.
• For banks and fintechs: New revenue streams, strategic partnerships, and improved customer engagement.
• For Africa as a whole: A path toward greater financial inclusion and economic development.

However, realizing this vision requires:

• Stronger security frameworks to build public trust.
• Clearer regulatory guidelines to encourage adoption.
• Consumer awareness campaigns highlighting the benefits of open banking.

Africa has the opportunity to lead in open banking innovation, not by replicating Western models but by tailoring solutions to the continent’s unique needs.

The API-driven financial revolution is just beginning, and its impact over the next decade could be transformative, unlocking new economic opportunities across the region.

About the Writer: 

Motunrayo Koyejo is a software engineer with a difference. She is passionate about improving financial technology through innovative engineering.

As a Backend Engineer, she has a knack for building reliable, high-performing systems. Motunrayo specializes in backend technologies like PHP, Laravel, Typescript, NestJS and AWS, focusing on creating solutions that scale and solve real-world problems efficiently.

She is a stronger believer in using technology to simplify complex challenges, whether it’s optimizing performance, improving security, or integrating seamless APIs.